President Donald Trump said he has answered a set of questions from Special Counsel Robert Mueller “very easily,” and that, because he had been “busy”, it had taken some time to complete the answers. but he also expressed his concern about Mueller’s purpose in obtaining them.
“You always have to be careful answering questions for people who probably have bad intentions. I haven’t submitted them. I just finished them.”
Although he had said he had been intending to pass his homework in last week, his lawyers postponed submitting his answers until later. So far, again although Trump said Mueller’s asking the questions was based on bad intentions, the investigation has resulted in charges against 32 people, including 26 Russians and four aides to Trump pleading guilty to various charges.
Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer who has been silent of late, has said that Trump’s legal team was still deciding whether some of Mueller’s questions would cause legal problems for the president even though it had agreed to them in September
Trump has stressed that he, and not his lawyer, had answered the questions personally.
“My lawyers aren’t working on it. I’m working on it. My lawyers don’t write the answers.”
Trump spent time last week with his lawyers reviewing his answers
After he answered the questions and gave them to his lawyers, he went on twitter to call the Mueller probe “illegal” and claim while offering no evidence that Mueller’s team was “screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.”
The questions Trump answered focused on five topics predating his winning presidential election. His lawyers are still discussing if he will answer questions about time in office.
“There are some that create more issues for us legally than others,” Giuliani has said .
After possible rewrites and editing, Trump is expected to turn over the answers before Thanksgiving.